An honest mistake:

Smart Bombs Lose Direction

The Associated Press, April 29, 1999

By Robert Burns

Excerpts:

W A S H I N G T O N, April 29 — The thing about many of the precision-guided bombs NATO is using in the Kosovo conflict that makes them amazingly precise is also the thing that sometimes makes them agonizingly imprecise..

The issue is lasers.

Bombs that rely on laser beams to find their targets — like the one that went off course Tuesday and hit a residential area in Serbia, reportedly killing at least 20 civilians — can miss by miles if fog, clouds or smoke get between the optical “seeker” in the bomb’s nose cone and the target on the ground.

In such instances, the laser beam is scattered and the bomb “sees” and homes in on light particles in the fog, smoke or cloud, putting it on an incorrect course as it hurtles to the ground. This is why NATO pilots have scratched many bombing runs over Yugoslavia rather than risk an errant strike.

In clear weather, the laser can be pointed precisely on a target and a direct hit is usually the result.

The Problem with HARMs

Other highly accurate missiles, such as the HARM anti-radiation missile that went astray today and struck a house in Sofia, Bulgaria — nearly 50 miles from its intended target — can go bad for other reasons. The HARM missile, designed to home in on radar emissions, was launched from an F-16CJ fighter today and aimed at an early warning radar in Serbia that had illuminated the NATO plane.

Apparently the radar was turned off [nasty Serbs] at the last moment, making it invisible to the missile, which kept flying in search of another radar signal, according to NATO officials, who said they did not yet have a full explanation of the incident. The HARM missile is one of the most-used weapons against radar...

Lying again, NATO says: It was SMOKE that did it!

NATO explains errant Bulgaria bombing

by Jackson in Yugoslavia

April 29, 1999.

AP News Service

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) _ Russia pushed a peace plan for Yugoslavia on Thursday as a chagrined NATO sought to explain how another of its missiles went astray, damaging a house near the capital of Western ally Bulgaria...

Bulgarian officials said a NATO AGM-88 HARM missile slammed late Wednesday into a house in a suburb of the capital, Sofia. Konstantin Varbenov was shaving on the top floor of his two-story home when the missile blew away his roof. His wife, child and grandmother, also in the house, were shaken but there were no injuries.

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov demanded an explanation.

In Brussels, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said an alliance jet fired the missile "in self-defense" at Serb anti-aircraft batteries but it "strayed from its target and unintentionally landed in Bulgaria," 30 miles from Yugoslavia's southeastern border.

It was not the first time NATO missiles have gone awry in the Kosovo conflict...

NATO said the target was a military barracks but the missile apparently veered off course when smoke interfered with its guidance system...

At least five more bombs get "smoke interfered" and fall on Bulgaria since the above described episode:

Our note: Bulgaria have inherited more than 20 Chernobyl like nuclear plants. If any of those got accidentally hit - all of the problems in the Balkans would be instantly "solved".

As the bombs rain on Bulgaria, its government keeps silent. They even permit NATO to use their air space for attacks on Yugoslavia. All other countries bordering Yugoslavia do the same. No-one dares complain to mighty NATO, let alone challenge its self-proclaimed "right" to invade any country's sovereignty. Only the Serbs, at the end of the 20th century dared challenge NATO-Nazism.

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